Treasury Secretary Bessent: US-Ukrainian economic deal is dead in the water

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Washington, D.C., on Friday to finalize a deal that would afford America access to some of his country's natural wealth in exchange for investments in a reconstruction fund and a U.S. economic presence that could serve as a deterrent to future aggression from without.

Following his heated exchange with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy was reportedly told to leave the White House before the agreement could be signed. Trump noted on Truth Social, "He can come back when he is ready for Peace."

According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the so-called minerals deal — which he referred to as a "general economic agreement" — is off the table in the interim.

Bessent, who was present for the ill-fated meeting with the Ukrainian president as well as for previous attempts at closing the deal, told CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday that "it is impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal. The sine qua non for an economic deal is that Ukrainian leadership wants a peace deal."

Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday that he was unsuccessful in pushing for an explicit security guarantee in the deal from the United States, reported the BBC.

'This is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history.'

"I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it's important that it's there," said Zelenskyy.

"I want to find a NATO path or something similar," he continued, adding, "If we don't get security guarantees, we won't have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing."

Although Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others in the administration figured they had made clear to the Ukrainian leadership that peace was a prerequisite for greater American involvement and that the deal was itself a de facto security guarantee, Zelenskyy cast doubt on the value of diplomacy during the Friday meeting, citing the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin might violate a ceasefire.

The treasury secretary told Brennan that the initial plan was for Zelenskyy to join around 16 individuals for lunch where the deal would be signed after the press conference in the Oval Office.

"We were already set up to sign the deal," said Bessent. "President Zelenskyy has thrown off the sequencing."

"Let me tell you the most tragic part of this," continued the treasury secretary. "President Trump's idea for this economic arrangement was to further intertwine the American people and Ukrainian people and show no daylight — to show the Russian leadership that there was no daylight. And President Zelenskyy came into the Oval Office and tried to relitigate in front of the world the deal."

Bessent suggested that absent a desire on Zelenskyy's part to strike a peace deal, the economic deal is dead in the water.

"I think we have to see if President Zelenskyy wants to proceed," said Bessent. "What's the use in having an economic agreement that's going to be rendered moot if he wants the fighting to continue?"

Bessent told Fox News' Laura Ingraham hours after the foiled deal closing, "This is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history."

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